Journal of clinical anesthesia
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Information exchange between anesthesia providers and parturients about neuraxial analgesia risks often occurs in the presence of labor pain. This study examined whether the presence of pain impacted the level of recall of information provided to parturients regarding risks of neuraxial techniques. ⋯ Although parturients' recall of neuraxial risks did not differ based on the existence of labor pain, those having pain reported greater satisfaction with the informed consent process.
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Case report. ⋯ Tension pneumomediastinum was the likely etiologic factor for the acute hemodynamic collapse and should be considered in the differential diagnosis of intraoperative circulatory arrest.
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Various hypnotic techniques are used in anesthesia, either on their own or as adjuncts. A new hypnotic technique, hypnopraxia, was tested in 5 patients undergoing various procedures (4 colonoscopies, 1 inguinal hernia repair, and 1 transobturator tape procedure). The patients were accompanied throughout the procedure by an anesthetist trained in hypnoanesthesia and hypnopraxia. ⋯ This preliminary experience with hypnopraxia would tend to show that this technique could be useful in the anesthetic setting. More experience is obviously required with hypnopraxia in anesthesia so as to improve the technique further, and to determine its implications, if any, for the patients and for the procedures. Furthermore, it will be of the greatest interest to determine, before carrying out any procedure with hypnoanesthesia, which patient will benefit most from which hypnotic technique.
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To determine whether epsilon-aminocaproic acid (EACA) load of 50 mg∙kg(-1) before skin incision, and infusion of 25 mg∙kg(-1)∙h(-1) until skin closure during cranial vault reconstruction (CVR) were associated with decreased estimated blood loss and transfusion requirements. ⋯ Using a standardized dosing regimen of EACA during craniosynostosis surgery, we found statistical significance in blood loss and transfusion requirements in surgeries of the shortest duration. We suspect this may be due to our selected dosing regimen, which may be lower than recently recommended. This study contributes to the growing body of evidence supporting EACA in CVR for craniosynostosis.
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We report the case of a 71-year-old woman with end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease who presented with a 10-cm tracheal laceration from a presumed traumatic intubation in the setting of respiratory distress and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbation and subsequently developed significant subcutaneous emphysema along her neck and mediastinum in addition to her peritoneum and mesentery. We were successfully able to treat this patient conservatively up until the time that tracheostomy was warranted. We discuss and review tracheobronchial injuries with respect to etiology, risk factors, and management and hope to benefit health care providers managing airways in patients at risk for tracheal injury.